Jordyn's (Real) First Day of School

Even though I already posted about Jordyn's first day of "school" the other day, I only really left her for an hour that day. I left her for about 4.5-5 hours yesterday. She cried pretty hard when I left, but Mimi (her teacher) texted me a couple of times, including a picture, and said she was doing very well.

Today, though... Today was her REAL first day of school, because it was the first day she was there for a full day while I went to work. Here are some pics from her first day:

Here she is just outside the door. I think she already knew what was going on, and wasn't too pleased. This was the best (and only) pic I could get.

 The rest of the pics were taken by Mimi (or maybe the assistant) and texted to me throughout the day:

She got pretty upset right before I left, and was crying pretty hard as I walked out the door. But Mimi sent me this picture just a few minutes later, so it obviously didn't last too long. 

Eating breakfast.

I was SO worried that Jordyn was going to have a hard time figuring out how to sleep in a room full of people instead of alone in her room in her crib. The original plan was for Mimi to put her in one of the two pack and plays that are in the room. But she sent me this picture, and the following one, saying "She was so happy seeing the other kids lay down I decided to put her on a mat and if that did not work I was going to put her in the pack and play. But I changed my mind and put Jordyn on her mat and she went right to sleep... I was surprised and happy!". I was pretty surprised and happy, too! Absolutely floored, actually. But glad it didn't take her long to figure it out. I knew her sleep sack and her Minnie Mouse would likely work as sleep cues, just as they do at home. But I still didn't think she'd fall asleep so quickly and easily on her first day! Mimi said she slept about 1.5 hours, which is about average for her these days. 

They celebrated one of the other kid's birthday today, so here's Jordyn having a piece
of birthday cake. 

I only called once to check in. I didn't hear her in the background, which was good, and Mimi said she'd been doing fine. She was pretty impressed, really, with how well she did on her first day. At the end of the day, she said she'd been a good listener, played well with the other kids, and that all seemed to be going just fine. 

When I arrived to pick her up at 5:00, I peeked in the window before Jordyn or anyone else saw me. I stood there for a minute and watched her. She was standing at the lego table with the one other little girl who was still there and the assistant caregiver, Jayme. She was perfectly content, not crying at all. It was SO nice to see that! Not that I thought she'd been crying all day, but it was just nice to have that visual. When I walked in and she saw me, she came running over to give me a big hug and be picked up. She wasn't upset, she didn't cry, she was just happy to see me. I really think exhaustion played a role in her being upset when I picked her up the other two days. That, and maybe she's just starting to realize that I really *will* always come back for her. 

She said "bah" to Jayme and Mimi, even smiled when Mimi was saying goodbye to her, and we left. And as we were walking to the car, I thought to myself, "Wow, we live a normal life now. I drop her at daycare, go to work, pick her up from daycare, and we go home together to play, have dinner, bath time, and bedtime". Just like a real, normal family! I love it! I don't necessarily love commuting at rush hour, but I really think I like the rest of our new setup!